U.N. Tribunal Wrong to Free Top Suspect, Rwanda Says

By CHRISTOPHER S. WREN

Published: November 12, 1999

UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 11—
The decision of a United Nations tribunal to drop its case against a former official in Rwanda accused of helping to organize the 1994 genocide there has angered the Rwandan government and threatens to unravel efforts to bring the most prominent suspects to justice.

''The government of Rwanda condemns this decision in the strongest possible terms,'' Joseph W. Mutaboba, the Rwandan representative to the United Nations, said today at a news conference, where he described the former foreign ministry official, Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza, as the ''No. 1'' criminal wanted for fomenting genocide.

Mr. Mutaboba described the court, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, as negligent in its duties. Until the tribunal apologizes for dismissing the case last week and reverses its decision, he said, Rwanda is suspending cooperation on other cases, a move that could bring new prosecutions to a halt.

Mr. Barayagwiza, 49, led the Coalition for the Defense of the Republic, a Hutu political party that espoused hatred of the country's Tutsi minority. He also helped start Radio Television Libres des Milles Collines, a radio station that incited the country's Hutu majority to kill Tutsi.

At least a half-million Rwandans, mostly Tutsi, were slaughtered by Hutu militia groups and mobs in 1994, according to most estimates.

On Nov. 3 the tribunal's appeals court ordered Mr. Barayagwiza's release, saying his fundamental rights had been violated by prolonged detention without trial.

The appeals court said the tribunal prosecutor had failed to inform Mr. Barayagwiza of the charges against him and had not transferred him promptly enough from prison in Cameroon, where he was arrested on March 27, 1996, and detained 19 months before being delivered to the tribunal, in Arusha, Tanzania.

Mr. Barayagwiza was accused of genocide, incitement of genocide and crimes against humanity. Mr. Mutaboba described him as ''one of the architects'' of the bloody campaign to exterminate Rwanda's Tutsi.

''The hardship he allegedly suffered in Cameroon jails is negligible compared to the suffering his victims endured,'' Mr. Mutaboba said.

He took pains to deny a permanent rupture with the tribunal. ''We have not burned any bridges between us and the United Nations at all.''

But he said the dismissal of the case created ''a terrible precedent'' that other accused Rwandans could use to have their cases dismissed.

The prosecutor, who at the time was Louise Arbour of Canada, is responsible for compiling cases against suspects in Rwanda and in the former Yugoslav republics. Mrs. Arbour quit on Sept. 15 to take a seat on Canada's Supreme Court.

Carla Del Ponte, a Swiss jurist who succeeded Mrs. Arbour, has said she takes the criticism seriously and will visit Rwanda later this month. But Mr. Mutaboba said it would be pointless for her to go to Rwanda before his government receives a written explanation and apology from the tribunal.

The appeals court ordered that Mr. Barayagwiza be returned to Cameroon. Mr. Barayagwiza, who remains in custody in Tanzania, has asked to choose his destination, saying he has no legal status, resources or family in Cameroon. Cameroon turned down an earlier request to extradite him to Rwanda.

Mr. Mutaboba called on the tribunal to give its file on Mr. Barayagwiza to the Rwandan government, which would try his case. ''If this tribunal doesn't have the courage to do it,'' he said, ''we shall do it.''

In Rwanda, an estimated 125,000 detainees have been awaiting trial for their possible roles in the genocide, some for five years.